When the war began, Huaxia prepared four troops on the northwest border. The first cluster stationed in Suide was the commander of Major General Sun Li, with a total force of 17,000.

Going west was the second cluster stationed in security guards, with the commander being Major General Xu Ning, with a total force of 15,000.

Then there was the main force, the Li Jinghuai Legion stationed on the Huaide line in Huanzhou, with a total force of up to 55,000.

On the west side is Zuo Helin's Han-Bo coalition forces, currently stationed in Lanzhou.

Wang Qinian's horse thief group was voluntarily involved in the war, and was essentially not in the battle sequence of the General Staff of the Chinese Army.

Among the four troops on the books of the General Staff, Zuo Helin would not have any local supplies. He only had about 3,000 Han soldiers, which could be supported by relying on the inventory of Yu Collectors seized in Lanzhou. Other Tubo soldiers carried their own military rations and weapons to participate in the war.

The other three attacks were fully supplied by the local government. In order to ensure supply, the Chief of General Staff Gongsun Sheng was the general representative of the base camp. The six ministries each sent a delegation of practical officials to go to the front line to be responsible for dispatching and replenishing supplies.

To this end, during the preparations, China dispatched 15,000 cattle and horse vehicles with leaf spring shock-absorbing chassis to the front line, 30,000 trolleys and nearly 200,000 civilians (including half of the slaves and common people belonging to the country).

In order to ensure the progress of the war, the food and grass reserved by the Huaxia Empire on the front line was enough for all the human and animal powers of the Expeditionary Force and the Logistics Forces for one and a half years, and subsequent replenishment could be carried out at any time.

Of course, this is just to prevent accidents. No one thinks that the little force of the pseudo-Xia can support the powerful Chinese army for more than a year.

On the day the war began, the Chinese army in Shaanxi Province first attacked Yinzhou, and the pseudo-Xia Zuoxiang Shenyong Army and Xiangyou Army jointly sent troops to resist.

The two sides fought in the field under Yinzhou City. Half an hour later, the Chinese army won the victory. Then the cavalry drove away the defeated army and attacked the Yinzhou city gate. The guards did not have time to close the gate. The Chinese cavalry rode their horses into the city. At that night, the Yinzhou guards surrendered to the Chinese army, and Yinzhou changed hands.

The second cluster launched an attack a little later. Xu Ning launched an attack on November 16, but it broke through the Great Wall Ridge defense line that day and conquered Hongzhou the next day.

After a day of rest, Xu Ning continued to attack. On November 20, his vanguard troops arrived in the important town of Yanzhou. The puppet Xia army gathered all the surrounding forces to defend the city.

However, this made no sense. The Chinese army directly used field guns to suppress the city walls, and then used blasting tactics to blow up a huge gap in all four walls on Yanzhou within one day.

Then the Chinese army brought cannons into the city. Whenever they encountered a strong defense point in the city, they would directly use cannons to solve the problem. The task of the main force became a simple cover for cannons to advance.

As usual, the commando passed through the wall, avoiding the street intersection where the enemy focused on defense, and unexpectedly attacked the defenders' flanks and behind them.

The troops cooperated with each other and advanced very quickly. The Dangxiang people's plan to use the complex terrain of street fighting to delay time completely went bankrupt. In the early morning of the 21st, the Chinese army spent seven hours to conquer Yanzhou.

The reinforcements from the Jianing Military Office arrived at the city of Yanzhou on the 22nd. They didn't know that Yanzhou had fallen for a day and a half at this time. The Dangxiang people, who were not breathing evenly, were easily eliminated by the Chinese army. The commander of the Jianing Military Office led all the officers to die in battle.

In just five days, the first and second cluster of the Chinese army cleared out all the pseudo-Xia military forces east of Yanzhou and south of the Mu Us Desert.

Li Jinghuai's main legion attacked north along the Lingzhou River. This generation went to Xingqing Prefecture. It was the core territory of Dangxiang's pseudo-Xia and the richest territory in the pseudo-Xia, no doubt.

In order to defend the Great Zhou Dynasty, the pseudo-Xia, who was not good at defending the city, gritted her teeth and built hundreds of various defensive fortresses in this generation.

Later, when the Great Zhou moved south, these fortifications were greatly strengthened because they needed to defend against the authenticity of the Juvenile's fake gold. Some time ago, when the Chinese army began to prepare for war, the Dangxiang people once again strengthened these cities and fortresses, and gathered most of the combat-capable troops of the Xia army in this area to prepare for a decisive battle.

Now, it is time to test the quality of these fortifications.

On the 16th, the Chinese army first attacked the Qingyuan Army City, which was a small fortress with 2,700 troops. The city was high and thick walls (according to the standards of the Dangxiang people), and was specially equipped with large trenchers and a few cannons (the Dangxiang people themselves explored and copied them).

The pseudo-Xia emperor Li Ganshun hoped that the defenders could last for a month, or let the Chinese army go around the city, thereby setting a big nail on the Chinese army's logistics line.

However, it is very sad that Li Jinghuai took the siege artillery this time!

Under the muzzles of the twenty-pound cannon and the thirty-pound mortar cannon, no matter how thick the rammed earth is, it is vulnerable.

Moreover, the Dangxiang people were unable to build the city wall very thickly - because of insufficient national strength.

Li Jinghuai gathered 6 siege artillery companies and brought 22 field artillery companies to bomb Qingyuan Army City for two consecutive hours, completely crushing the entire South Gate City Wall Tower and about one-third of the defenders of this small fortress.

Then the Chinese army entered the city and took another twenty minutes to completely deal with the defenders in the city who were frightened by the thunder of the god of war.

After the war, the General Staff of the Chinese Army made a lot of summary of this battle and a series of subsequent siege operations:

Artillery is the god of war and the best means of siege - it is also the one who defends the city.

Under the muzzle, any old fortifications become meaningless. These fortifications include our own city walls and most military fortresses and defense lines. Faced with enemies with powerful artillery, the defensive side must have the same ability to go into field battles to interfere with the artillery on the offensive side.

If the attacking party has weak firepower and the defense party, then any action is meaningless.

The defense methods of simply loading engineering volume during the Battle of the Yellow River were no longer useful. It is recommended to add more experiments in the future and try new defensive methods that can at least play a certain role in artillery fire.

The development of the war is in line with the summary report of the Chinese army. The small and strong fortresses accumulated by the Dangxiang people, with 3,000 troops, were unable to play their due role under the attack of the Chinese artillery.

Due to the small number of troops stationed, the Dangxiang defenders were unable to leave the city to fight in the field. Therefore, the Chinese artillery can test the firing one by one, calmly adjust the bounce point until it hits, and then fire with maximum firepower.

Traditional brick-clad earth walls usually collapse within half an hour, and during this period the city wall defenders were unable to make any effective counterattack.

Another flaw of traditional small fortresses is that they cannot even avoid artillery fire in the city, and then go to the front line to defend - the buildings in the city are even more unreliable and cannot excavate enough anti-aircraft artillery fortifications on the back bevel.
Chapter completed!